


Friends of Friends

by SubwayWolf



Series: Use the Press [2]
Category: House of Cards (US TV)
Genre: Anal Plug, Anal Sex, Dirty Talk, M/M, Morning Sex, Pet Names, Secret Relationship, Wet & Messy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:56:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6411571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SubwayWolf/pseuds/SubwayWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"<i>Cause even you can find a shoulder to lean upon / Some other vouchered social soldier without uniform / And he will look you in the eyes, and you will feel at home / And then the moment had passed and you were once again alone</i>"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends of Friends

**Author's Note:**

> so heres an update in which seth gets laid. he deserves it. hes been through a lot. (by "a lot" i mean my mom is finally watching hoc and im watching with her, and she calls seth "the man i don't trust with beady eyes" and makes fun of me for blushing every time he comes on screen. smh that i gotta defend this boy even in my own damn home)

Seth and Edward didn’t have to play pretend. 

Each knew that they weren’t the other’s partner of choice. Their relationship was one of mutual benefit. They were attracted to each other, trusted each other, respected each other, and understood that company was the best combat to loneliness. It was simple. So it happened.

Part of Seth wondered if Frank had wanted a proxy-romance like this to flower, if he was glad to observe bonding within his administration, or if perhaps it would piss him off. On the surface, it seemed like Frank had no idea it was happening, but it was hard to tell. Frank was so distracted with Russia and the America Works program and Tom Yates that, honestly, Seth couldn’t even remember the last time they made eye contact or spoke about something that wasn’t work-related.

The fear of Frank finding out and cutting it off out of possessiveness of his favorite bodyguard was distant, but still present, and it made the affair a deal more exhilarating. In the end, it seemed that Frank didn’t care to know his subordinates’ whereabouts, as he was too preoccupied with himself. That was part of what made the relationship necessary.

By no means was the affair distant and cold-hearted, however. Edward and Seth actually grew close. What had begun as one-night stands grew into sleepovers grew in to ordering take-out for dinner and watching TV before heading off to bed. Work made sure that they didn’t have much free time as of late, but whatever time they did have, they spent it together.

And, unexpectedly, Seth had become extremely fond of the guy. Meechum was a very pretty boy, definitely the cutest Seth had ever slept with. He might not have had much to say, but he had a natural shyness about him that gradually thawed out the more time they spent together. Seth came to learn that Edward had a good sense of humor, too, which was surprising given how stoic he was during his day job. More surprising was that he was slutty. He really enjoyed a good fucking and could do some wild things with his mouth Seth had never experienced before. 

Seth actually felt lucky. Edward was attractive, kind, and great in bed. Being with him felt good. There was no guilt or emotional obligation, just companionship. It was not only refreshing, after countless bad relationships and non-comitial, one-time fucks over the years, but it felt right, maybe even heart-warming, like Seth had a real friend for the first time in his life.

With Edward, Seth finally learned the true meaning of mutuality Underwood had spoken of all those months ago. Compared to how this felt, being with Frank was, in retrospect, draining and impersonal. If it took Tom Yates’ interference for Seth to realize this – and for Edward to realize, too - then Seth was actually thankful for the author.

Surely, their relationship was sex-driven, but sometimes Seth and Ed didn’t even fuck. They just fell asleep together. Edward liked cuddling, which Seth wasn’t particularly fond of, but it wasn’t a difficult sacrifice to make. Just sleeping with someone, in the same bed, their body heat and breathing beside you, that was enough to make the loneliness disappear and the pain go away.

It was exactly what each of them needed.

It wasn’t clear if the smell of coffee or the tacking of fingers on the keyboard woke him up, but Edward stirred awake, slowly and lazily. He didn’t even pick his head up when he mumbled softly, “Do you ever sleep, Mr. Grayson?”

Seth was already going through his e-mails, his laptop open on the desk he was seated at. It couldn’t have been later than five in the morning. He kept his eyes on the screen. “Nope. Occupational hazard. Besides, Frank and Claire are in Russia. I have to switch my circadian rhythm to their time zone regardless if I’m with them or not.”

Ed snuggled into the pillow again, starting to fall asleep already. “Okay.”

There was silence for some time afterwards. Seth had a question on his tongue. He peeked over his shoulder and saw Edward was still awake, and decided to ask it. “Why do you still call me Mr. Grayson?”

A small, worried frown turned Ed’s lips. “You don’t like it?” He honestly looked adorable, huddled under the covers, his eyes droopy, the little pout on his face, his nasty case of morning bedhead. Seth was frankly smitten.

Seth half-shrugged. “It’s a little weird. I mean, we’ve been doing this for...” For exactly fifteen nights, was the truth, not counting the under-the-desk blowjobs in Seth’s office when Edward went on break, but Seth didn’t want to appear as if he cared enough to remember. “For a while now. You can call me Seth, if you want. It’s not disrespectful or anything. If it’s a habit, I understand, but don’t feel obligated.”

“It’s not a habit,” Edward explained as he gave up on sleep and sat up in the bed, sitting with his legs crossed under the covers. “Francis likes it when I call him Mr. Underwood in bed. And you seem to like being called Mr. Grayson.” He teased Seth with a playful smirk. “Does it make you feel powerful, sir?”

Seth hoped the room was dark enough so Meechum wouldn’t notice he was blushing. “You’re adorable,” he chuckled, “And more observant that I thought you’d be. It sounds like you have me all figured out.”

Edward looked a little proud of himself. “I guess I do. I’ve been with men like you before.”

That piqued Seth’s interest. He figured his inbox could wait. He turned the desk chair around so it was facing the bed behind him. “Is Frank like me?” he wondered.

They usually didn’t talk about Frank, because it made Edward sad, but it had been getting easier for him as time went on. “Hmm,” Ed pondered, “No. He’s different. He’s strong and confident, but he can be gentle, too. That’s why I like him.”

Personally, Seth would never use the word ‘gentle’ to describe Frank Underwood, but Ed must have known him in a different way. A wave of misplaced nausea passed through him, accompanied by guilt. He once again felt like he didn’t belong, like whatever was happening between him and Edward was just a sideshow for the real thing. The real thing was Frank; it always would be. Seth didn’t even realize that he wanted to be like Underwood until this moment, where he was confronted with the fact that they were not the same. 

Ed noticed that Seth was distressed. He re-thought his answer. “Maybe you are like him. But not in the gentle way.”

Seth perked up. “In what way?”

“I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it.” He smiled kindly. “But he must like you for a reason, right?”

“Sometimes I’m not sure if he likes me at all.”

“He’s like that with everyone.” Ed looked away from him. His muscles tensed up a little. “I feel that way, too, sometimes.”

Seth hoped he could make Ed feel better without having to hug him or anything. “You shouldn’t. He’s deeply fond of you. It only takes eyes to see that.”

Thankfully, it did help. Edward relaxed and smiled at him a little. But then the smile faded. “Do you want me to stop?”

Seth furrowed his brow. “Stop what?”

“Calling you Mr. Grayson.”

Seth felt himself smiling again. “You can call me whatever you’d like.”

Edward’s voice turned sweet and gentle, and he looked over at him with innocent eyes, a look that drove Seth wild. “Would you like it if I called you Mr. President?”

Seth just laughed in response, because he assumed Ed was joking. He didn’t answer because he didn’t really want to face the truth that he probably would have liked it very much. He also didn’t want to wonder if when Edward closed his eyes while they fucked, if he was indeed picturing the President between his legs.

Still cross-legged on the bed, Edward looked at Seth for a long moment. Seth was still in an oversized t-shirt and old briefs that probably smelled of sweat and sex, while Edward was only wearing clean, black silk boxers for ease of access. The blinds were drawn, but the sun hadn’t shown itself yet. The only light in the room was from the computer screen.

His mind starting to drift, Seth turned back to his laptop and continued browsing through the dozens of messages he’d received overnight.

“Hey, Seth?” Meechum called sweetly.

Seth barely glanced away from his screen. “Yeah?”

“Can we fuck?”

That surprised him. He turned over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. “Really? This early in the morning? I haven’t even had my coffee.” 

He would never admit it, but Seth was still pretty fatigued from last night. He had a bad habit of falling asleep after sex like a tired dog, but starting the day emptying his load didn’t sound bad at all. “I don’t want you to be incapacitated at work.”

Edward rolled his eyes. “I’ll be fine.” That was most likely true. Edward had a great deal more stamina than Seth, and he took dick extremely well, possessing the handy ability to walk straight and tall despite being fucked open hard just minutes before.

When he came across a message from the lead press secretary at the Senate, Seth knew he had to respond to it quickly and that Edward had to wait. “Alright, fine. In a minute.” He started tacking away on the keyboard, ignoring the excitement already building up in his gut.

Though Seth wasn’t watching, he could hear the sound of Edward entering himself with his fingers, reaching between spread legs, pushing his undergarments to the side and fingering inside himself. The sound was slick and Seth’s nose could pick up the faint, dank smell of old come touching the air of the room.

Edward was breathy, letting out soft little moans as he pushed his fingers in. “You filled me up so good with your big dick last night. So much come is still inside me. Can you hear it, Mr. Grayson?” 

That was unfair. Meechum knew damn well that Seth loved dirty talk. It incapacitated him. It made sex impossible to deny. “Just give me a second,” he mumbled, failing to focus on the e-mail. All he could think about was the slick sounds of Edward finger-fucking himself. His throat was running dry.

“I’m so wet and full.” He moaned like a whore, loud, like a cat in heat, as if he wanted the entire apartment building to hear. “I want more, sir.”

Screw the e-mail. Seth got to his feet and hurried over to the bed where Ed was waiting for him. 

The air thickened with impatience the instant they touched. Seth had his hands resting on the muscles of Ed’s back and neck, just touching him affectionately, and Meechum had his up to Seth’s underwear. He grabbed their sides in loose fists, hesitating, teasing, threatening to pull them down and reveal all of Seth’s vulnerability.

As Seth stroked through the hair at the nape of his neck, Ed looked up at him, licking his lips impatiently. “Will you please come in me again? I want to take you dry, and I want to feel it inside me.”

Seth had spent a lot of time in Washington, being bribed and flattered and enticed with everything under the sun, but he had always found it difficult to say no to a pair of pretty brown eyes. His cock was getting stiff, turning upwards right in Edward’s face. 

Ed noticed – in his defense, a cock as big as Seth’s was not easy to ignore. He took one of his hands and pawed at Seth’s growing cock through the cotton fabric of his sky blue briefs. “Please?” he murmured to sweeten the deal.

Seth felt a sudden fear that Meechum might have been doing this out of obligation. “You don’t have to ask, you know.” He moved a hand to Edward’s chin, tilting his face up so their eyes met. “You’re the one with the gun, after all. You can take charge and command me.”

Ed smirked teasingly. “I serve at the pleasure of the President.”

Seth laughed. “Shut up.”

Edward tore Seth’s pants down to reveal his cock, and his own boxers were tented too, so they were removed soon after. They positioned themselves on the bed, Edward on his back with his legs spread and Seth atop him, and got to business.

They had a strict “no kissing” policy they had agreed to early on, and the “no eye contact during sex” policy wasn’t verbally established but seemed to be a mutual agreement as well. The latter was easier, given that Edward usually had his eyes closed anyway, but the former was more difficult, because sometimes when Edward was moaning or biting his lip or licking them out of habit, Seth desired nothing more than to lean down and devour him. 

Seth used his hands to position himself, then went in bare. Meechum latched his legs around Seth’s waist and Seth was lowered on his knees, Ed’s bottom half in his lap, and he gripped into Meechum’s thighs, leaving unfriendly red marks in pale skin, digging into thick muscle, positioning Edward’s hips and ass where he needed them to be as he fucked forward.

Objectively, Seth knew he was well-endowed, so he usually had to be careful and slow when topping, but Edward had no limits to what he could take. He liked being fucked hard, so Seth gave every inch of himself, right down to the thick base, pounding their hips together in a clash of loose friction, ramming against his prostate with every thrust. 

Seth was rough with his hands, too, keeping a grip on Ed’s hips, marking him with bruises both faded and fresh. He also stroked Ed’s cock for him, quick and rough, whipping him at the wrist, purposefully rough and careless, his strong hand in a dangerously tight fist. 

All of this was at Meechum’s humble request - his demands to be pounded and roughhoused were reminiscent of what Francis must have done with him – or, conversely, what he would never do.

Inside, Seth could feel the come he had spent last night, curdling and losing its fresh heat, kept warm only by Edward’s clammy insides. Seth could feel his own stomach turn but he moved past it. The come was soon coating Seth’s own dick and leaking out of the hole as he thrust in and out, creating a stale sticky mess between Edward’s legs, but the smell of it was turning Seth on even more, so he didn’t stop.

Sliding in and out was particularly easy with the aid of this unsanitary natural lubricant. Meechum was open and loose, giving plenty of room for Seth’s big cock, but he knew when to roll his hips and clench his insides so that rings of hot muscle pulled and clenched around Seth’s dick and gripped him tight, inducing him to orgasm with each heavy thrust. 

Embarrassingly, it didn’t take very long for Seth to come, sweat dampening his hair and darkening his shirt beneath his armpits, the heat flushed across his cheeks spreading down onto his chest, the lust rushing through him so brightly it made him dizzy. He came hard, his entire body bursting with pleasure and relief, seed filling up Ed’s hole from floor to opening, Seth forgetting to be careful not to spill any of it out. The pleasure pushed an embarrassingly loud moan past his lips as golden gratification washed through him like a fresh wave of clean blood in his veins.

As soon as Edward felt the wave of fresh come spilling into him, hot and thick, he came, too, all over his own stomach and Seth’s hand, whining like a whore, a satisfied smile lighting up his otherwise exhausted expression.

Trying to catch his breath, Seth regarded the pretty picture before him, admiring the mess between Edward’s legs, fresh and foul, and Ed was doing his part to keep it inside by tightening up his overworked hole as best as he could. Edward was flushed in the face and pushed his damp hair out of his eyes with one hand. Seth admired him, the muscles in his arms and torso, his long lashes, his pink cheeks and worn-out lips. 

Completely worn out from the good fucking, Edward barely had the energy to speak. He looked up at Seth timidly. “Plug me up. I want your come in me all day.”

Seth looked down at him with pure affection. He was so sexy when he was talking about what he wanted. Seth was glad to serve him in simple ways like this. He got up off the bed, his leg and stomach muscles still burning, to go fetch one of Frank’s fancy silicon plugs.

All that training with the plugs had essentially been for nothing. Seth had worked his way up to a decent size but still had yet to receive anything back there aside from fingers during a blowjob or Meechum’s tongue when they got drunk enough. Edward got more use out of the training than Seth did, since he preferred bottoming. He seemed to understand that Seth was too big of a baby to be able to take cock just yet, and that if he did, it would have to be slow and careful, which neither of them had the patience for right now.

The plugs were over by the TV on the dresser, Edward’s a decent thickness but about the same length as Seth’s. Seth made sure it was clean and walked it back over to the bed.

Edward spread his legs for him, and his hole was already stretched and open, so the plug slid right in, sucking inside of him so that all that was visible was the flared tail end of it. Ed didn’t even flinch, he took it all without batting an eyelash, tapping the base with the pads of his fingers to make sure it was in right before sitting up, giving no hint of discomfort whatsoever. Seth tried not to appear impressed.

Seth stood from the bed and was about to return from the computer when Ed took his hand, stopping him in his tracks. 

Somehow, hand-holding was pushing the border of non-affection more than kissing or eye contact would, and Seth’s heart almost stopped in his chest. Ed held him tightly, and Seth didn’t squeeze back.

Ed’s grip was firm. He looked up at Seth with those pretty brown eyes and spoke softly. “I hope it’s okay to say this,” he began, keeping eye contact. “I like you. I’m glad that we’re doing this.”

Seth could have said a million truths right then, some of them he couldn’t be sure what they might be until he opened his mouth. But over the years he accumulated a talent of keeping his emotions, from anger to sadness to love, inside of him, because the cost of spilling would always be worse than the expense of bottling it all up.

The right thing to do would be to reach out and stroke Ed’s face a bit with his free hand, maybe tousle through the mess of hair on his head, but Seth kept his hands to himself. Boundaries couldn’t be crossed. Seth didn’t want to start feeling anything past what he was now, and he especially didn’t want Meechum getting any ideas. 

Seth could feel his palm starting to sweat from the heat and nerves. “I like you, too,” he confessed. “This is a good thing we have going here. I genuinely believe that.” He offered a small smile. “Taking care of you is my pleasure.”

A glimmer of happiness shone in Edward’s eyes, and for the life of him Seth didn’t know where it came from, for the day had not broken and the laptop’s screensaver had shrouded them in grey darkness. Even so, the affection was easy to notice. 

“Thank you.” Edward was so gentle and genuine. His voice almost shattered, and at the sound of it, Seth’s heart nearly did the same.

The strict ‘no kissing’ agreement was in place for a reason. Seth felt the desire to lean over and plant a kiss on Edward’s soft lips, but he didn’t, because he knew it would feel wrong instead of right. It would also bring hope into the equation, and that was something neither of them would be able to stomach.


End file.
